World Health Organization: Coronavirus pandemic is ‘one big wave’

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said the coronavirus pandemic has taken the form of “one big wave” rather than the more common seasonal ebbs and surges experienced by most viruses.

“People are still thinking about seasons. What we all need to get our heads around is this is a new virus and … this one is behaving differently,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris said in a virtual briefing in Geneva, according to Reuters.

“It’s going to be one big wave. It’s going to go up and down a bit,” she added. “The best thing is to flatten it and turn it into just something lapping at your feet.”

Numerous public health officials, including Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, warned early in the pandemic that even if infection rates flagged, a second wave was likely in the fall.

In early July, as a surge in cases began in several states, including Florida, California and Texas, Fauci warned the U.S. was “still knee-deep in the first wave of this.”

“It was a surge or a resurgence of infections superimposed upon a baseline, Francis, that really never got down to where we wanted to go,” Fauci told National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins.

“A series of circumstances associated with various states and cities trying to open up in the sense of getting back to some form of normality has led to a situation where we now have record-breaking cases,” he added.

White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow denied the possibility of a second wave in late June even as the White House trade adviser told CNN the White House is preparing for such a scenario.

“There are some hot spots. We’re on it. We know how to deal with this stuff now, we’ve come a long way since last winter and there is no second wave coming,” Kudlow said on CNBC June 22.